Chipotle’s Continued Struggle with Food Safety: What Does It Mean for Your Restaurant?

Making headlines, once again, Chipotle Mexican Grill’s struggle with food safety continues. Chipotle shut down a Sterling, VA location this week following reports of customers becoming ill, attributed to norovirus. The store, which is located 20 miles west of Washington, DC, closed on Monday but reopened on Wednesday after sanitizing teams restored the location to safe conditions.

New food handling standards and food safety procedures were introduced over the past year, as the result of a massive food safety outbreak the end of 2015. However, the new food safety scare has renewed customer and investor concerns. Following the initial report, Chipotle stocks dropped 5% translating to about $470 million in market value. The stock continued to drop on Wednesday.

Steve Ellis, Chipotle CEO issued a statement, “It is unfortunate that anyone became ill after visiting our restaurant, and when we learned of this issue, we took aggressive action to correct the problem and protect our customers.”

Could Your Restaurant Survive a Food Safety Scare?

Let’s be perfectly honest. This is a nightmare for any restaurant owner. Chipotle is a multi-million dollar franchise and they are struggling to weather food safety storm after storm. In fact, in February 2016, they settled with more than 100 customers who became sick after eating their food.

Thankfully, this wasn’t your restaurant. But, what if it is next month? Could your restaurant weather a food safety scare? Are you investing an ounce of prevention into your restaurant to prevent having to deal with the pound of cure?

What is Your Restaurant’s Ounce of Prevention?

If your restaurant is still keeping a greasy binder full of half completed papers and calling it a food log, you are not investing in an ounce of prevention. This is serious stuff. People are getting very sick. Chipotle announced their changes to how they handle their foods. They boil some foods now and marinate some in lime juice. But, the issue is not usually the preparation styles of the food. The real food safety issue is accountability. Restaurant owners, understandably, are focusing on customer experience and the bottom line. They are negotiating food costs and revamping menus. Restaurant managers are handling hiring and training issues. How often are restaurant owners and managers combing through the food logs to make sure that line checks were completed? How often are they ensuring that proper corrective actions are taken? How frequently are food safety reports generated and analyzed? Be honest with yourself right now. Is it possible that you could be the next Chipotle?

Try FreshCheq For Free, No Risk

There are several products on the market with fancy probes and expensive hardware. Maybe you have even tried these systems. The truth is that expensive programs and fancy thermometers are not going to improve accountability. Those systems are not going to properly train or hold employees accountable and they won’t make your follow up or reporting easier.

FreshCheq is a product in its own food safety category. Brands like Buffalo Wild Wings, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Godfather’s Pizza rely on FreshCheq to automate and simplify food safety processes. Most importantly, they rely on FreshCheq to hold themselves and their employees accountable.

Learn more about FreshCheq and sign up for your free trial. (Use PROMO CODE: FQ30) After the trial, there is no obligation to sign up, zero hardware to purchase. You will be shocked to learn how affordable it is.

There is no denying that Chipotle has had a rough couple of years. Accountability systems like FreshCheq help managers to combat food safety scares with automated data and reporting. When health inspectors show up at the door, being able to generate months of food logs and food safety checklist with the click of your mouse is priceless.